She knows her disaster personality, as she calls it, well.
She had work to do.
It sits on you, says Soraya Sutherlin, like you are the individual thats responsible.
Hurricane Helene flooded towns in North Carolina in September.Stephan Pruitt/Fiasco Media
No matter how much she planned, the moments before pushing the button were always stressful.
It can be challenging to send alerts out successfully in rural, mountainous regions due to connectivity issues.
When tornadoes swept through Rockdale County, Georgia, this past spring, residents complained they had little warning.
In some cases, bureaucracy and the chain of command slowed down the messages.
At other points, the fire swallowed up power lines.
Beyond the technological challenges, there were the high-stakes decisions to make in the fires rapid approach.
Paradise officials sent phone alerts through a software called CodeRed, which required residents to opt in.
At the time of the Camp Fire, less than 40 percent of Paradise residents had done so.
Our thinking is much different now, Curtis says.
We think its important people make that choice for themselves, so we have to give them the information.
He runs his own employees through drills to practice using alerting software and craft messages for different hazards.
Sutherlin similarly requires the 450 Alert SouthBay participants to undergo quarterly training or risk having their accounts deactivated.
Alert SouthBay works across jurisdictional lines, which is rare in the world of alerting.
Sutherlins goal is to get a message out within 15 minutes of learning about a disaster.
Other emergency managers say that time frame would be impossible in their area.
Before she sends a WEA alert, she needs approval from local elected officials, which can take hours.
So first, theres making sure the technology itself exists and is operational when a disaster strikes.
Then, theres having a person trained to press the button and navigate the steps that entails.
And then, theres the actual content of the alert itself.
There are decades of research into what sort of messages motivate people to act during disasters.
Shes trying to make it easier for them.
People always think that when the time comes, Ill know how to do it, he says.
In the real world, it doesnt work like that.
There, he saw the sky explode, accompanied by an unnatural cry.
Currently, the WEA system supports sending messages in English and Spanish.
Private alerting programs like CodeRed offer more options.
But the onus of translating alerts often relies on the capabilities of local offices.
Where she works, thats 27 languages.
In the meantime, the lack of language accessibility continues to impact vulnerable populations.
They also simplified messages sent in Spanish that were difficult to understand.
Trujillo Falcon says cultural competency also needs to be taken into account when trying to reach broader populations.
This includes considering how different dialects might change the meaning of messages or finding new ways to deliver messages.
It also means acknowledging mistrust some have in the government.
THE NEXT TIME a wildfire threatens the town of Paradise, there will be signs.
At noon, a deep-voiced disclaimer interrupted our conversation: This is a test of the Paradise early-warning sirens.
People always think that when the time comes, Ill know how to do it, says Rob Dale.
It doesnt work like that.
Wahhh-AAAHHH-oooh,this tone calls, a sound you feel in your stomach.
Sirens pose their own problems they are costly to install and require regular upkeep and testing.
They also rely on someone choosing to press a button.
But for Curtis, they are worth the extra effort.
The signs, the sirens, the WEA, social media.
Theres a saying in the weather world, Dale tells me: Layers save lives.
Over cups of diner coffee, Krehbiel walked me through her carefully curated emergency-alert plans.
Seven months later, her preparations were put to the test.
These radios saved lives!
Krehbiel wrote to me after the fire, referring to both her community internet and the countys radio dispatches.
Its proof that planning and layers can save lives but that the planning cant start soon enough.
